deskthority

http://www.strawpoll.me/12151342 A little poll I made.

Left side only.

0100010 wrote: Left side only.

Same

same as well. I was surprised to see it at only 41%.

I wonder what "Other" means. Peoplewhodon'tfindauseforthespacebar?

It does seem that there's clear justification for all space bars being split, i.e. most people use half of the space bar or less and that's over 3 u of wasted space. From the shine on mine, it's just the right 2/5ths.

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: I wonder what "Other" means. Peoplewhodon'tfindauseforthespacebar?

I've seen people hitting the spacebar with 3-4 fingers in the middle, so...

I believe I hit it 90% on the right, but looking at the shines on an old ABS spacebar I have it seems sometimes I also hit the left side.

left4lyfe

When a poll/thread like this has come up before, there have been those that alternate between left and right hands.

I think also that people who are used to Japanese keyboards that have a tiny bar in the middle might tend to press larger spacebars in the middle.

Usually right, with my index finger .

I use both of them. Right thumb when typing and left when gaming.

I use both of them too, Right thumb when typing and left when gaming working with Rhino/CAD but the spacebar could be reduced as I don't use the left part of it

I remember the mostly identical poll here on DT, where the question was, which thumb do you use for the spacebar.
I think Chyros broke that poll.

I'm using my left thumb for some unknown to me reason.

Ray wrote: I remember the mostly identical poll here on DT, where the question was, which thumb do you use for the spacebar.
I think Chyros broke that poll.

Hahaha always the goddamn index finger, why is that such a shock to everyone?!

For me it's around 80% right and 20% left. It's most likely because more words have a final letter typed by the left hand (thus requiring a space on the right) than by the right hand. Amongst exceptions are punctuation marks, which are almost universally on the right, requiring a space on the left.

Typing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pbjAzLThGE

if I type, I usually hit it with my right thumb. But, sometimes I use my left one too. If I game, it is 100% left

I cannot understand how many people use the pointer finger to press it. I tried to type like that and I almost broke my fingers

It's fascinating to see left is winning out as virtually every person I meet hits the spacebar on the right side, and if not that then in the middle. Perhaps this could be explained by the majority of people to be interested in responding to such a poll are left thumbists.

Handedness doesn't seem to play a roll; I'm right handed but use my left thumb for the spacebar. *shrug*

Does anyone know which side and thumb to use is 'theoretically' superior? If I had to make an observation I would say maybe the left because your left hand doesn't need to move nearly as much as the right hand to hit things like 'backspace' or 'enter' (made worse with ISO enter keys which require more movement / I use both ISO and ANSI and adapt my hand movement as needed). And the 'spacebar hand' ideally should exhibit as minimal movement as possible.

EDIT:
Potatomonkey, if you're doing another poll, it should be "does your spacebar thumb correspond with your handedness", I'm curious how many people have their handedness matching.

The either-or choice is faulty. There should be a weighted choice or a spectrum, I am probably about 2/3 right and 1/3 left.

fohat wrote: The either-or choice is faulty. There should be a weighted choice or a spectrum, I am probably about 2/3 right and 1/3 left.

If you use your right thumb, you're hitting the spacebar on the right side. If you use your left thumb, you're hitting the spacebar on the left side. Index finger usually means you're hitting it in the centre; but I'd say that's a less common for most typists since it will slow you down.

Used to try to try opposite thumb depending on which hand the next character required. That took a bit of practice but once I built a grid layout planck keyboard, it is left thumb shift, righ thumb backspace. That took almost no practice at all to get used to, it felt to natural -- plus, I guess I'm not that great a typist, using that backspace as much as I do! LOL.

I started the same poll months ago. Right handed left thumb was in lead I guess.

Comes from wasd gaming is my hypothesis.

@micrex: I think fohat thought about a weighted choice on how often someone uses the right side / left side, not how far left / right.

I think a more interesting way of asking it might have been dominant vs. less dominant

Their is a strong chance that keyboard enthusiasts would be weighted to being left hand dominant as compared to the standard 11% of the population. Tough to infer much from this poll. Something like the following would have painted a more interesting picture without being options crazy:

• Left handed but space with my right
• Left handed and space with my left
• Right handed but space with my left
• Right handed and space with my right
• Space with both hands (regardless of amount, a full spacebar is ideal)

Personally, I am strongly right-handed in general, but use both thumbs regularly for the spacebar.

When typing text, my right is used more often, but when using the numpad or mousing, the left takes over seamlessly.

Left thumb for space bar, right thumb for enter... 5-6-7x space bars are waste of space and fingers.
Just trolling

obfuscated wrote: Left thumb for space bar, right thumb for enter... 5-6-7x space bars are waste of space and fingers.

+1
Actually I use right for space and left for backspace. But I agree that big space bars are a waste.

obfuscated wrote: Just trolling

+1

My choice of left handed spacebar use exclusively may have to do with the fact that I am left handed. All boards should have a split spacebar, with the option to set the right or left as spacebar.

I once read that you are supposed to be able to tell, even from birth, if a child will be right or left handed by looking at the size of the thumbs. Supposedly the dominant hand has the larger thumb. As one grows up and the hands develop, I can see that the dominant hand might grow a slightly larger/stronger thumb. Anyone have small children they can track this theory on? And if you are right hand dominant, does that almost always mean you are right eye and right foot dominant?

But if you break your dominant hand/arm/wrist and learn to use the other hand as efficiently, do they even out?

I am right handed and exclusively use the right side of the spacebar (except when playing games when my right hand is on the mouse, of course).

I was really shocked when I discovered this! On the first day of my first job, I was issued a laptop whose keyboard's spacebar was defective and didn't register presses from the right side, but worked fine for the left. I realized this was crippling for my typing.

Upon some reflection, I'm remembering that the typing game I used to learn how to type (back in middle school) taught me to use the spacebar with my right thumb only. It may have recommended using whichever thumb is on your dominant hand, I can't quite remember... Does anyone else have any experience with a typing class or program, and if so, which thumb were you told to use?

Now, I'm trying to do a typing test and only use my left thumb for the spacebar, and it feels so unnatural and strange. But I can see why it would make more sense for the left thumb to press the spacebar, especially on dvorak where the right hand does so much more work.

Which hand is dominant varies from the dominant eye more often than you would think. I shoot quite a bit (or did)... trap, skeet, archery, handguns, etc. As vision fades for lots of folks, your dominant eye becomes more and more apparent even if both are equally out of focus. I know quite a few people that are right hand/left eye dominant. Any new behaviour can eventually be learned though. Many of these people have learned to shoot left handled with practice.